Times (UK)

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
4/5 Mrs. Lowry & Son (2019) Kevin Maher Within three or four short exchanges she establishes Mrs Lowry as one of the great maternal monsters of cinema, up there with Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest or Piper Laurie in Carrie. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
2/5 A Million Little Pieces (2018) Ed Potton This one is acted with commitment and often beautifully shot (a crucial event is shown reflected in the polished surface of a bathtub), but adds little to what has gone before. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
3/5 Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) Kevin Maher [O]nce the film finishes discussing said scene, it stops dead and dashes for the credits, as if Alien were a movie of one half only. Still, this is an appealing jaunt nonetheless - and a must for Alien enthusiasts. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
4/5 Bait (2019) Kevin Maher In one of the most extraordinary movie experiences of the year, this Cornish-set drama unfolds in scratchy monochrome and jumpy, jarring shots, mostly featuring weather-beaten fishermen, and lobster pots, and nets and boats. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
4/5 The Mustang (2019) Ed Potton Animals have been coaxing the soft side out of tough guys since Clint Eastwood co-starred with an orangutan, yet there's still something poignant about this meathead engaging with a warmer world. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
3/5 The Informer (2020) Ed Potton It's nothing we've not seen before, but it's pulled off with slick effectiveness and has enough bumps in the road to demand your attention to the end. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
1/5 Astérix : le secret de la potion magique (2018) Ed Potton The best that can be said of it is that there's nothing wrong with the glossy computer animation, but the plot is yawningly convoluted and, like many foreign-language animations, the script travels abysmally. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
4/5 Judy (2019) Kevin Maher The secret weapon in this case, however, and what lifts this film far above the competition, is its lead actress, Renée Zellweger. EDIT
Posted Aug 31, 2019
1/5 Killers Anonymous (2019) Kevin Maher A truly execrable dirge that fails to satisfy a single element of coherent contemporary film-making, except, perhaps, for the initial one-line pitch. EDIT
Posted Aug 30, 2019
4/5 The Souvenir (2019) Kevin Maher As rousing and exhilarating as anything you'll see in a Hollywood blockbuster or high-level horror. EDIT
Posted Aug 29, 2019
5/5 The Truth (2019) Kevin Maher One of Deneuve's greatest performances, with Kore-eda transforming the magisterial persona she frequently supplies to other directors into something more complex, tragic and yet defiant. She deserves awards for it. And so does the film. EDIT
Posted Aug 28, 2019
4/5 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) Larushka Ivan-Zadeh Proof, once again, that a creaky floorboard, judiciously used, is worth more than any expensive digital trickery. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
() Victoria Segal This was a confessional comedy masterclass. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
() Victoria Segal Seeing [Vic] Reeves and [Bob] Mortimer on TV in 2019 always feels like a reason to be cheerful, a reminder that occasionally a genuine comic misshape will find its way into the mainstream selection box. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
Keepers of the Flame (2018) Liam Fay Clear-sighted coherence is the key to incisive documentary-making, and Keepers of the Flame burnt itself out in a blur of overambition and confused purpose. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
() Liam Fay It was the contemporary interviews with the individuals who have lived longest with the consequences of that day that distinguished the film, elevating it from a historical account to something more relevant and resonant. EDIT
Posted Aug 26, 2019
4/5 Angel Has Fallen (2019) Kevin Maher It's not Bond. But all the better for it. EDIT
Posted Aug 21, 2019
2/5 UglyDolls (2019) Larushka Ivan-Zadeh Positive messaging about celebrating our unique imperfections and seeking your own truth has never felt more urgent to children in the age of Instagram. Pity, then, that this toothless and derivative marketing exercise doesn't practise what it preaches. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
4/5 Transit (2018) Kevin Maher It doesn't always click (a scene involving a suicidal dog minder is a bit arch), but the dauntless ambition is never in doubt. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
2/5 Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy (2018) Kevin Maher The lifeless narrative rhythm, which quickly succumbs to a deadly causal trap (and then, and then, and then), doesn't help either. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
4/5 Leto (2018) Kevin Maher Don't let the premise intimidate you. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
3/5 Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) Ed Potton Suffice to say that this film is keenly aware of its origins and their essential absurdity. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
2/5 Good Boys (2019) Larushka Ivan-Zadeh Not superbad - but not that good either. EDIT
Posted Aug 16, 2019
2/5 Playmobil: The Movie (2019) Ed Potton But much like the Playmobil toys, with their poky feet and weird, lobster-like hands, Playmobil: The Movie is similar but inferior to the Lego equivalent. EDIT
Posted Aug 9, 2019
5/5 Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) Kevin Maher The plot is a tapestry template that drops in characters like shining beads and watches the story weave slowly around them. EDIT
Posted Aug 8, 2019
1/5 Balance, Not Symmetry (2019) Ed Potton Everyone in the film is annoying - variously self-obsessed, pseudy, theatrically needy or hopelessly drippy, while the dialogue veers between excruciating and cheesy. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
3/5 Charming (2018) Kevin Maher It's mostly moronic and lazy, but some of the pop ditties are nice. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
2/5 Animals (2019) Kevin Maher Grainger, typically, yet again, is heroic and delivers everything she can, including myriad expressive looks, some nice physical comedy and a pitch-perfect Dublin accent in an admirable attempt, ultimately fruitless, to breathe life into a corpse. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
4/5 Photograph (2019) Kevin Maher It's an artful look at two misfit loners who find each other. But only just. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
2/5 The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) Ed Potton It's not offensively dire, just half-hearted and derivative, with a Dirty Dozen-style assembly of a team, a Bond-style assault on Zeta's icy lair and an earnest message of unity across races. EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
1/5 Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) Kevin Maher Don't let the trailer fool you. It's pants (insert crotch joke here). EDIT
Posted Aug 2, 2019
4/5 () Carol Midgley How to Break into the Elite was astute and depressing because it confirmed what I imagine many already suspected. EDIT
Posted Jul 30, 2019
3/5 () Ed Potton It is contrived - no longer based around real, erm, history - and less horrible; most of the deaths happen off-camera, presumably to secure a PG rating. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
3/5 The Great Hack (2019) Kevin Maher This high-profile... documentary about the Cambridge Analytica scandal is... frequently gripping, gorgeous to watch, occasionally thought-provoking, always entertaining and yet, ultimately, a tiny bit vapid. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
4/5 Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019) Kevin Maher Oh, this is just lovely. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
1/5 The Current War (2017) Kevin Maher The film's release was duly paused and in the two years since there have been reshoots, five new scenes added and ten minutes cut from the original Toronto version. It's still a dirge. It's flat and repetitive. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
2/5 () Chris Bennion It is with some trepidation that I tell you that I barely endured, let alone enjoyed How the Middle Class Ruined Britain. EDIT
Posted Jul 24, 2019
3/5 () Kevin Maher It progresses, however, into something darker and sadder, and is a bitter testament to the power of commercial interests to weaponise the law for financial gain. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
3/5 Gwen (2018) Ed Potton It's a bleakly beautiful film, full of angry skies and distant thunder. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
4/5 Making Noise Quietly (2019) Ed Potton It's an eloquent film about silences, how they can hurt and sometimes protect. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
2/5 Tell It to the Bees (2018) Kevin Maher Yikes. That wasn't pretty. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
4/5 The Edge (2019) Ed Potton Douglas's film is a moving examination of the prizes and prices of sporting success. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
4/5 Sixteen Candles (1984) Kevin Maher Watch with compassion. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
4/5 Varda by Agnès (2019) Kevin Maher It gets a little less sexy towards the end as she ruminates on her love affair with still photography and the essence of truth in the captured image, but overall this is an essential and heart-warming portrait of a sorely missed talent. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
() Camilla Long The documentary carried in-depth interviews with a series of, well, I suppose the word is crustaceans, who took the business of being etiolated and unattractive to baroque new depths. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2019
3/5 Inside the Social Network: Facebook's Difficult Year (2019) Chris Bennion It was interesting to catch a glimpse behind the silicon curtain, but there was a sense of awe here that jarred. EDIT
Posted Jul 17, 2019
4/5 Kursk (2018) Ed Potton [T]his is a punchy and poignant piece of film-making from Vinterberg. EDIT
Posted Jul 13, 2019
2/5 The Dead Don't Die (2019) Kevin Maher The Dead Don't Die, instead, stomps in like your drunken uncle at a wedding disco and announces that it's here, and that everything's fine because it's going to have a lot of fun at the zombie movie's expense. If only. EDIT
Posted Jul 13, 2019
5/5 () Carol Midgley The documentary pulled no punches in spelling out that there is no test, no cure, no treatment, no way of knowing how many people are silently infected. And this was all preventable, a man-made disaster. EDIT
Posted Jul 12, 2019
4/5 The Lion King (2019) Kevin Maher The Lion King is dead. Long live The Lion King. EDIT
Posted Jul 11, 2019